So you think you know how the world works, right? You watch one episode of 'Mythbusters' and suddenly you're an expert on ballistics, germ theory and aeronautical engineering. Tell me then, Jonas Salk, why you always get sick on airplanes. You're probably…

In 186 3, German chemist Julius Wilbrand was trying to make yellow dye and what he came up with was trinitrotoluene, also known as TNT . Twenty years went by until his creation was actually discovered to be explosive and another twenty…

Newsflash: You only have 407 days until the 2016 presidential election. Do you think you'll have enough time to make an informed decision? We think so. In fact, you could bury your head in the sand on Mars for another full year…

If you turn on the TV or scroll through Facebook for any short period of time, it seems like we're consumed with fear. There's always a new airborne virus or a new piece of legislature destined to sink the country into Purge-like…

Here are two scenarios that might properly contextualize Harrison Ford in light of his recent plane crash into a Santa Monica golf course: One. He's Hollywood's Mr. Magoo: a hapless, sensory-challenged old man who creates a chain reaction of havoc and destruction…

When your favorite sitcom characters take their obligatory once-a-series trip to Vegas, unless that specific episode is about how Chandler loses it all on black, or Kramer comes up with a scheme to count cards, we never see them face the mundane…

Where you live in the United States determines a hell of a lot more than whether "coke" means Coca-Cola or "every single carbonated beverage." It can also mean the difference between sauce on your pizza or nothing, the difference between honor killings…

Why is Hollywood allergic to female protagonists? It's not a conspiracy -- men and women alike tend to prefer films with male heroes getting the girl. Even Disney's most progressive princesses still wind up with huge eyes, tiny hands and every other…

Why did the universe try so hard to make World War I happen? Was Hitler basically an evil Forrest Gump? In Hollywood, two bullets hitting in midair is too insanely coincidental for anything besides a Matrix sequel, but it happens constantly in…

What is love? Listeners, don't hurt us -- that's the question Cracked's married-est editors Jack O'Brien, Soren Bowie and Kristi Harrison set out to answer in today's podcast. Why does symmetry matter so much when it comes to boning? Are sexy people…

Did you know there were like three different books about gawky, dark-haired 12-year-olds going to wizard school before ‘Harry Potter’? Two separate inventors actually filed patents for the telephone on the exact same day. On today's Cracked podcast, Jack O'Brien, Jason Pargin…